Diablo 4’s Eternal Realm will continue to receive new content

Diablo 4’s developers have confirmed that they’ll continue to support the Eternal Realm with new story content in future seasons.

The Eternal Realm of Diablo 4 has felt a lot like a dumping ground for old seasonal characters, the assumption being that nobody plays with them again once a season ends. However, this is far from true, as many players become quite attached to the characters they’ve spent hours building and continue to use them for side quests and exploring Sanctuary while waiting for fresh content.

Not everyone has the time or desire to start again each season with some choosing to treat the ARPG like it’s World of Warcraft or Destiny, in that they like to stick to one (or a few characters) and progress their story.

The issue is, the Eternal Realm wasn’t given any fresh story content until Season 5. Of course, new features were added, but before Season 5, the Eternal Realm was essentially a graveyard for old characters.

Season 5 provided the Eternal Realm and Seasonal Realms with a new story that set the scene for the Vessel of Hatred DLC and now the devs have confirmed this will continue to be the case in subsequent seasons.

Speaking at Gamescom 2024 Lead Designer, Rex Dickson and Production Director, Tiffany K. Watt confirmed that the Diablo team is aware of both Seasonal and Eternal Realm and has plans to support them both.

They said, “There are two types of players and we’re supporting both. Eternal players usually want to stick with the character they’re invested in whereas Seasonal players are used to the practice of rolling a new character each season. Eternal players are very much about the story while seasonal players want to push all the way to level cap.”

When asked if story updates in future seasons would be self-contained, like Season 2’s vampire threat, or if they’d tie into the overall narrative of Diablo 4 after the defeat of Lilith, as Season 5 does. Dickson responded to this by saying, “Season 5 made sense to set up the expansion, Season 6 will also add new content, but you can also expect more self-contained stories.”

Finally, we asked the developers if older stories and features from Seasons 1-4 would be added to the Eternal Realm in time. They said, “If players like it, if something works we’ll find a way to add it. Expect to see more of that. We listen to fans and read their feedback. If players aren’t enjoying something, we’ll move on.”

Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred will be the game’s first major story expansion and will be released on October 8, 2024.